Today's Customers Demand Customer Service On Their Terms

Customers are more demanding than ever. They have more power than they used to. They are smarter and have higher expectations than ever before. After all, we taught them!

The great brands of the world have boasted, and deservedly so, about their excellent service. And, they have the awards to prove it. They have educated our customers about what great customer service looks like, and now customers have come to expect it. These brands have raised the bar for all companies involved. No longer does a customer compare you only to your direct competitor. You may be in the manufacturing business, but your customer service is now being compared to your customer’s recent experience at a hotel or a restaurant, or maybe an employee at a local retail store who was so helpful.

And, when it comes to support…well, your company better have some of the basics. Great companies don’t put customers on hold for extended periods of time. They don’t take hours, or even days, to respond to emails and social media posts. No, the best companies have knowledgeable and helpful people who have been trained to not only answer questions and solve problems, but to also create confidence with the customer.

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The bottom line is that customers have the power. They are more in control and more up-to-date on the latest and greatest ways to conduct business – sometimes even more so than the companies they are doing business with. Mike Burkland, CEO and president of Five9, a cloud-based contact center software company, confirms this. He says, “Consumers’ power is on the rise and modern consumers expect to engage with a service or support center on their terms, using a variety of channels that include voice, web, chat, email, video and social media.”

The answer is simple: all of the channels that your customers are using. Of course you can make an exception for the outlier or two who tries to connect with you on some obscure or new, untested channel. Other than that, you must have a presence or at least be able to respond on any of the other typical channels.

The most typical, because it’s been around the longest, is the phone. Customers still call, but many of them are moving to self-service options. Depending on the type of business, you should consider having a robust question-and-answer section on your website. Video is a strong way to deliver customer support. Done well, a good video may be almost as good as having a consultant standing behind you and telling you exactly what to do. People still email questions as well, and hopefully you are responding quickly. And then there is social media. When clients ask me which channel to be on, many times they are referring to social channels.

Customers are communicating on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, review sites and more. There are programs that are available to help monitor all of these sites. The key is to respond quickly to all posts, good and bad.

Let’s take a look at the most basic customer support option: the phone. That used to be the primary mode of support communication, other than face-to-face. While still popular, it is fading, becoming one of the least used support options. When the recording comes on and says, “Your call is very important to us,” and then the customer is put on hold for an unreasonable amount of time, they may say they were put on hold for “an eternity.” An exaggeration, of course, but the message on that recording is the exact opposite of what the customer is experiencing.

Shai Berger, CEO of Fonolo, is still bullish on the phone as an important support channel. Berger states, “The quantity may have gone down (as far as total support calls), but the complexity has gone up. The kinds of calls that go to a live agent are reserved for those complicated or urgent issues that are not handled by self-service.” Fonolo has software solutions that create a better customer experience for those still wanting to use the phone. Communicating to the customer how long the wait is going to be is comforting. Having the call returned at a specific time, even a time that the customer designates, turns the frustration of being put on hold into a refreshingly positive experience.

Customer demand used to be about meeting inventory and service demands. Today, customer demand is about meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations, in other words, their demand for customer service and experience. You must meet customers on their terms, when and where they want. All things being equal, customer service and CX will tip the scale in a competitive marketplace. Is your service and experience tipping the scale in your favor?

Shep Hyken is a customer service & customer experience expert, keynote speaker and NYT bestselling author. Learn about his latest book The Convenience Revolution.